NC Environmental Quality Secretary Elizabeth S. Biser released a public statement last week to dispel misinformation and urge action as the DEQ works to address PFAS contamination and protect the public health and financial well-being of North Carolinians.
The statement, dated May 2, 2024, came from the Public Affairs office just one day after the NCDEQ’s May 1st press release and Health Risk Assessment concerning North Carolina’s severe struggle with 1,4-Dioxane contamination in its drinking and surface waters.
If you don’t have clean drinking water, nothing else matters. — Elizabeth S. Biser, North Carolina Secretary of Environmental Quality
In response to an April 22 letter from the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce (a business advocacy group whose members include DuPont/Chemours, Martin Marietta, and GFL (the Canadian company that owns the “construction”High Point Landfill” in Jamestown), Secretary Biser addresses misinformation about the state’s effort to propose state surface water and groundwater standards.
Biser has also offered to meet with Chamber members to provide information about this process as well as the threat PFAS contamination poses to the health, economy and financial well-being of North Carolina communities.
The Chamber’s letter asks Biser to “delay” the adoption of the EPA’s numeric health standards and suggests this “delay” can be done by calling for more research, business cost estimates, and more time for them to “understand the impacts” and how they “will meet them.” The letter goes on to say that the Chamber’s member companies can “protect both the environment and the people” even though history has shown that to be in complete contradiction to what has actually happened here in North Carolina.
The Secretary’s letter to the Chamber explains why DEQ’s proposed rulemaking is necessary to reduce PFAS contamination in our drinking water sources, and how state surface and groundwater standards work in conjunction with the federal drinking water standards issued by the EPA on April 10.
Her letter also explains that reducing discharges of PFAS entering our state water supplies is the most cost-effective way to meet the new drinking water standards, and that with the DEQ’s proposed rulemaking actions, the entire burden of complying with the new drinking water standards will fall to public water systems and North Carolina ratepayers (us).
In a separate letter, Secretary Biser urged the members of the Environmental Management Commission (EMC) to move forward on proposed groundwater rules at their meeting in Raleigh this Wednesday and Thursday, May 8-9.
[The public may (and should) attend these meetings virtually via WebEx HERE, or view/listen to past meetings of the Enrivonmental Management Commission starting with last September, HERE.]
She also expressed her disappointment that the EMC’s Groundwater and Waste Management Committee delayed a vote to move forward on the rulemaking by requesting an informational item for the agenda instead.
Read Secretary Biser’s letters to the NC Chamber and the EMC.
For those of you who have been asking how you can help, please consider writing the members of the Environmental Management Commission (email addresses are below) to (1) Reiterate the immediate attention that needs to be given to the deplorable state of our waterways; (2) Tighten up on the requirements and monitoring of the wastewater discharge permitting system that has enabled this contamination to be ignored and unmonitored for so long; and (3) RAISE THE FINES for noncompliance.
Robin W. Smith, EMC Chair, robinsmithemc@gmail.com
Maggie) Monast EMC Vice-Chair, maggiemonast@gmail.com
David W. Anderson, dandersonemc@gmail.com
Yvonne C. Bailey, baileyemc@gmail.com
Charles (Charlie) Carter, carterdenr@gmail.com
Donna L. Davis, ddavis.ncemc@gmail.com
Marion Deerhake, m.e.deerhake@gmail.com
Christopher Duggan, cduggan@dugganlegal.com
Patricia (Pat) K. Harris, pkharrisemc@gmail.com
Steve P. Keen, stevepkeenemc@gmail.com
Dr. H. Kim Lyerly, HERBERT.LYERLY.NCEMC@GMAIL.COM
John R. McAdams, McAdams.EMC@mcadamsco.com
John (JD) Solomon, pamlicojd@gmail.com
Elizabeth Jill Weese, Jweesemc@gmail.com
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